Quantum Commodity Intelligence

About Quantum Commodity Intelligence

Quantum Commodity Intelligence (QCI) is a London-headquartered independent price reporting agency for the global energy transition markets, founded in 2021. Describing itself as the world's first price reporting agency dedicated to energy transition and carbon markets, it publishes commodity benchmarks and market news for oil, biofuels, carbon and ammonia, providing daily energy news, price assessments and trade data to customers including energy majors, law firms, consultants, governments and buyers and sellers of low-carbon commodities. An employee-owned company, it serves clients in more than 100 countries. It publishes from qcintel.com.

Founding in 2021

Quantum Commodity Intelligence was founded in 2021 by industry experts, as an employee-owned company headquartered in London, with registered offices in London, Dubai and Singapore and additional offices in Paris and the United States. The founders identified a structural gap in commodity intelligence: the established price reporting agencies had been built for the fossil-fuel economy, while the markets of the energy transition — carbon credits, biofuels, zero-carbon ammonia, environmental certificates — lacked dedicated, independent benchmarks.

QCI set out to be the price reporting agency of the transition: an independent PRA producing commodity benchmarks for carbon offsets, crude and oil products, biofuels and environmental certificates as well as ammonia, alongside real-time, market-moving news and data.

The energy transition PRA

Quantum describes itself as an independent price reporting agency for the global energy transition markets and the leader in carbon credit price discovery and carbon market news. Its mission, in the company's telling, is to help customers transition to greener, cleaner energy by providing the price transparency the transition markets need to function.

The PRA model — independent, methodology-driven price assessments — is particularly important in nascent markets. Where liquidity is thin and transactions are opaque, a trusted benchmark gives buyers and sellers a reference point for negotiation, risk management and contract settlement, accelerating the market's development.

Benchmarks: carbon, biofuels, oil and ammonia

QCI specialises in market data for the oil, biofuels, carbon offsets and zero-carbon ammonia industries. Its commodity benchmarks cover carbon offsets — where it claims leadership in price discovery — crude and oil products, biofuels and environmental certificates, and ammonia, the emerging zero-carbon fuel and hydrogen carrier.

The coverage bridges the old and new energy economies: conventional oil benchmarks sit alongside the instruments of decarbonisation, reflecting the reality of its clients, who manage portfolios spanning both. Daily price assessments give traders, originators and compliance buyers the reference prices they need in markets where volatility can be extreme.

News and market intelligence

In addition to benchmark pricing, QCI offers clients access to real-time, market-moving news and data: daily energy news covering the markets its benchmarks serve. The journalism complements the price assessments, explaining the policy decisions, supply disruptions, project developments and trading flows behind the price moves.

The combination of news and benchmarks follows the classic PRA playbook — the model pioneered by the great energy and metals agencies — applied to the transition markets: report the market, assess the price, and let each discipline strengthen the other.

Clients and reach

QCI's clients include energy majors, law firms, consultants and governments, as well as suppliers and buyers of low-carbon commodities who use its proprietary price assessments and intelligence to manage risk. Nearly 40,000 industry professionals had accessed QCI services since October 2021, and the company counts clients in more than 100 countries.

The client mix reflects the breadth of the transition economy: the energy companies decarbonising their portfolios, the lawyers structuring the deals, the consultants advising on strategy, the governments designing the policies, and the project developers and corporate buyers transacting in carbon credits and low-carbon fuels.

Funding: the Series A

QCI completed a £12.5 million Series A funding round, led by the investor Elephant, whose partner Christopher De Souza said the commodity intelligence and benchmark space was changing and that QCI was best placed to gain market share from incumbents and take a key position in nascent sectors. The funding provided the capital to scale the benchmark and news operation as the transition markets grew.

The investment thesis was straightforward: the incumbents' benchmarks served the fossil economy, while the fastest-growing commodity markets of the coming decades — carbon, biofuels, hydrogen carriers — needed a dedicated agency. QCI aimed to be that agency before the incumbents could adapt.

Partnerships and data distribution

QCI distributes its data through partnerships with market infrastructure providers. Its partnership with Laconic, the environmental intelligence company, integrates QCI's daily carbon pricing data and market news with Laconic's SADAR natural capital monetisation platform, enabling carbon originators, traders and carbon warehousers to organise, monitor and track positions, holdings and custom baskets alongside historical retirements in real time.

Andrew Goodwin, QCI's director of partnerships, described democratising environmental data as core to the company's mission: integrating carbon pricing data and market news with partner platforms strengthens the carbon market through a common set of trusted data available to all ecosystem participants. Laconic praised QCI's proven methodology for creating accurate price assessments as invaluable for analysing carbon offset certifications.

Quantum Commodity Intelligence today

Today Quantum Commodity Intelligence operates from London, Paris, Dubai, Singapore and the United States as an employee-owned independent PRA, publishing daily benchmarks and news for the oil, biofuels, carbon offsets and ammonia markets to clients in more than 100 countries.

In a few short years, the 2021 start-up has established itself as a recognised voice in energy transition intelligence: the agency producing the price assessments on which carbon credit deals are referenced, the news service its market reads each morning, and — in its own founding ambition — the benchmark provider of the greener, cleaner energy economy.

Serving the carbon market ecosystem

QCI's data is built for the full carbon market ecosystem: carbon originators, traders and carbon warehousers who need to organise, monitor and track their positions, holdings and custom baskets alongside historical retirements in real time. Its partnership with Laconic integrates QCI's daily carbon pricing data and market news with Laconic's SADAR natural capital monetisation platform and its synthetic basket and investment tools, putting trusted price data inside the workflows of market participants.

Laconic's senior vice president of strategic alliances praised QCI's proven methodology for creating accurate price assessments as invaluable for analysing carbon offset certifications — a verdict that captures why independent benchmarks matter in carbon markets, where the credibility of the underlying credit is inseparable from the credibility of its price.

An employee-owned challenger

Quantum's employee-owned structure is unusual among price reporting agencies and central to its identity: founded by industry experts in 2021, the company put ownership in the hands of the specialists producing its benchmarks and journalism. Nearly 40,000 industry professionals accessed QCI services in the period from October 2021, a rapid build of audience for a start-up intelligence brand.

Andrew Goodwin, the company's director of partnerships, describes democratising environmental data as core to its mission: by integrating carbon pricing data and market news with partner platforms, the carbon market is strengthened through a common set of trusted data available to all ecosystem participants. It is the classic PRA proposition — transparency as a market-building force — applied to the markets that will price the world's transition to net zero.

Benchmarks in practice

QCI's proprietary price assessments are working tools: its clients — energy majors, law firms, consultants, governments and the suppliers and buyers of low-carbon commodities — use them to manage risk in markets where volatility can be extreme and liquidity thin. The daily energy news and trade data that accompany the benchmarks give those assessments context, explaining the policy decisions, project developments and trading flows behind each price move. For carbon market participants in particular, where the credibility of a credit and the credibility of its price are inseparable, an independent, methodology-driven assessment is the foundation on which trading, procurement and compliance strategies are built — and QCI's claim to leadership in carbon credit price discovery rests on providing exactly that.